Here is a guest post from Dhruva Suresh, who travelled with Darter on “Heart of the Himalayas – Photography Tour in Lahaul & Spiti.” All text and images by Dhruva.
It‘s been all so fast. I left Bangalore airport at 10 in the morning on the 18th of July. Landing in Chandigarh at 1 P.M., I had the whole day to spend as my bus to Manali was at 10 in the night. Without any hassles we boarded on the bus and when I woke up we were at Manali. Surprisingly the rains had stopped. Yay!
Comfortably settled at Johnson’s lodge’s cozy room, my friends and I decided to head out to the market, to the national park and also to a temple nearby. On the next day we were ready with our bags at not 4:31, not 4:32 but at 4:30 A.M. sharp. Whole team split into two, off were we to Spiti Valley in two cars. We were already told by our photo mentors that the journey would be quite long, say 12-14 hours.
The first stop was at this glacier cave. I’d never seen anything like that in my life.
After a handful of stops we had reached Kaza, biggest of all small villages in Spiti Valley, in the night. Our abode for the next couple of days was a small, neat lodge. The guy who manages the place calls himself “Himalayan Shepherd” had decorated the interiors in a very simple yet creative way. With a lot of books to read there was also a quite stable internet connection which was really surprising.
Next day was a leisure day as we didn’t have much to do and had plenty of time on our hands. Visiting a nearby monastery was a nice way to kick start the easy day.
After lazing around for a little more than a day, as per the itinerary we were ready to go to Ki monastery which was about an hour’s drive from Kaza. Ki monastery is located 4200M above MSL and dates back to around 1000AD which without doubt is one of the oldest in the valley. Beautiful views of the fields, the mighty Himalayan mountains and also the Spiti river from the monastery was so enchanting that I felt like staying there forever. How I wish I could!
Later, some of us settled down on a mountain behind the Ki monastery hoping to witness some drama in the sky. Light sculpted holes through the heavy cover of cloud and lit up the old structure. Once the clouds started drifting to another side, the play of light changed in a very unimaginable way. The sun danced on the far ridge line. There were whole new set of natural frames waiting to surprise us. In one of those, the valley had become a stage with the sun putting a spotlight on.…
While climbing down, we again stopped for a few minutes to shoot this frame when the rays were illuminating the mountain. Bidding adieu to Ki monastery we were on our way back to Kaza.
There was some drama happening in the sky far away. I remember colour of the sky changing from orange to purple. But on the exact opposite side, the sky was all blue and clear before the night fell which happened within no time. What an incredible way to end the spectacular day!
On the next day we were travelling to Langza, village famous for presents of marine fossils and Buddha’s statue. One day was not at all sufficient for us to experience the village life. These are some photographs of the shepherd life, kids and the famous Buddha statue I shot at Langza.
Next stop was Komic village, the highest motorable village in the world. After talking to monks, drinking tea with them we said good bye and were back on road to Kaza. But we took a different route which had very narrow and scary roads.
Back to the same lodge, we had less than half a day to take rest before going to the most awaited place, Chandratal lake. After sipping on a cup of tea in the early morning, we left Spiti Valley and were going to the lake. Few photo breaks and one break for lunch at Batal were made. Our vehicles were then stopped at a place, 2 kms before the lake where our tents were pitched and ready. After a taking a power nap, we were out of our tents, fully packed in warm clothes and excited to go to the lake. At about 4:30 in the evening we started the short 20-minute hike to the lake. We got a glimpse of blue waters of Chandrataal when we were on the hill descending to reach the lake.
Waiting for water to became still and the sun to set we sat on rocks enjoying the landscape and deeply lost in our own thoughts. Just when we were about to leave to our tents, after spending few hours there, the water had become totally still. Hoping to get better pictures on the next morning, we left the place.
Longing to shoot stars, make star trails and also take photos of the Milkway, I was waiting for this night to come from over a couple of months. We were at the dining tent, planning on shooting stars, only if the sky was clear. I had some compositions mapped in my head after days of daydreaming. We were fortunate as our plans were not dashed and the sky was absolutely clear. Ready with our gears, few were searching for the north star, a few taking photos to make trails, some clicking photos of the milky way. That was one of the nights I will never forget.
Temperature had fallen down to 3 degree Centigrade that night. Tired I was. Back in our tent, wriggling inside my sleeping bag, I immediately went into deep sleep.
The next morning, which was sadly the last day in the Himalayas, we woke up before the sun and were again off to the lake. Just as we wanted, the water was still, the place was silent. And with not more than eight people around it was much more easier to make photos from different places and different angles.
Slowly trudging down the mountain we were back to our tents. Hungry we all were. We had finished devouring on tasty breakfast, drinking tea and we were ready for another long journey to Manali. Though the journey time was less compared to day one, still we all were exhausted. By evening we were back in Johnson’s. That night’s dinner treat by Arun was an official end to the trip.
It has not even been a month and I can’t wait to go back.
Mega thanks to our photo mentors Arun and Manish for organizing this wonderful tour to an intriguing destination of Himalayas, for all the help, advises and fun times during the trip. Special thanks to my friends who were on this trip for making it a memorable one.
Know more about this photography tour: Heart of the Himalayas – Photography Tour in Lahaul & Spiti